Imagine you want to cook a delicious potato soup. But the potato staircase is empty and the supermarket around the corner is closed. How good that potatoes grow just a few steps away - in the old water bucket on the balcony.
How to plant potatoes on the balcony?
Potatoes can easily be planted on the balcony in containers with a capacity of at least 10 liters and a drainage hole. Make sure you have enough sunlight, enriched garden or potting soil and regular watering. The yield is around 1kg of potatoes per seed potato.
A place for potatoes
Your balcony doesn't exactly look like a classic potato bed with furrows and piled-up ridges. But the potato itself doesn't care whether it grows in a large potato field or in a bucket.
What it needs to grow is soil, warmth, water and nutrients. These conditions can be provided almost anywhere: you can plant potatoes on the balcony, the roof garden or the sunny courtyard.
All containers with a capacity of at least 10 liters and a drainage hole in the bottom for excess irrigation water are suitable for planting. These can be plastic water buckets, black bricklayer buckets, sturdy rice or jute sacks or wooden boxes. Special, reusable plant bags (€17.00 on Amazon) made of plastic are available from specialist retailers.
What else you need
- a few hours of sunlight per day
- simple or better garden or potting soil enriched with compost
- always a filled watering can
- Seed potatoes
All types of potatoes are suitable for growing on the balcony, so you can grow whatever tastes good and looks good. For a 10 liter bucket you need one seed potato.
What is the harvest like
You can't expect a rich harvest on the balcony. The planter limits potato growth. But the harvest is definitely enough for a few meals. A yield of approx. 1kg of potatoes is possible per seed potato.
Balcony decorations
You benefit twice from potatoes on the balcony. While the delicious tubers grow below, the flowers of the potato plant decorate your balcony above. Depending on the variety, they bloom white to purple.
Conclusion
When growing potatoes on the balcony, you shouldn't focus on the yield, but rather on the joy of gardening. Growing your own potatoes is always an experience, especially for city children.
Tips & Tricks
Can't get enough of the potato flowers? The jasmine-flowered nightshade (bot. Solanum jasminoides), which is related to the potato, has similar flowers. It is a balcony plant for sunny to partially shaded places and requires a lot of water. But be careful: like all nightshades, it is poisonous.
